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In the coming year, China will have to rein in sizzling economic
growth, create more jobs, keep tabs on inflation and curb the pace
of rapidly swelling foreign trade in a bid to achieve balanced
progress, said the country's development design czar.
China's development planning chief, Ma Kai, the State Council's
minister of National Development and Reform Commission, said on
Saturday China's economic growth rate of 9.1 percent in 2003 was a
big achievement.
However, it is necessary to rein in sizzling economic growth
though a minimum economic growth rate of 7 percent is needed this
year in order to keep the urban registered jobless rate below 4.7
percent, he told deputies at the 10th National People's Congress
(NPC) which ends Sunday.
Most strikingly, China, the world's fifth largest trading power,
slowed down its foreign trade growth rate to 8 percent from 37.1
percent in 2003, in which total foreign trade volume had swollen to
US$851.2 billion. Foreign trade, the main engine driving the
economy, has maintained double digit growth for many years.
Sketching out other economic targets, Ma said China would work
to "perfect the exchange rate mechanism" of the yuan while keeping
the currency at a "rational and balanced level."
China has set a target of 9 million new urban jobs and an
official jobless rate of about 4.7 percent this year. That compares
to 4.3 percent last year and would be the latest in a series of
rises. China's unemployment data counts only urban joblessness
among people who have registered with authorities.
If laid-off and rural surplus workers are considered, the
jobless rate may double.
Some economists have been ringing alarm bells that the world's
sixth largest economy may already see signs of inflation. In
response, the country is determined to put the brakes on
fast-growing investment to curb the annual rise of the consumer
price index (CPI) to 3 percent in 2004. The CPI, another major
gauge of an economy's inflation, rose by about 1.2 percent last
year.
China aims to cap growth of the broad money supply at around 17
percent, a move aimed at stopping a flood of money that helped push
annual inflation to 3.2 percent in January, the highest level in
nearly seven years.
Ma Kai said the government will control the issuance of
over-extended loans and try to cool down some overheated sectors,
including steel, cement and real estate.
Ma also forecasted a US$38.6 billion budget deficit this year as
the government shifts resources to help the vast countryside catch
up with wealthier cities.
Ma said the widening wealth gap caused as cities and coastal
areas race ahead of the hinterland could spark social unrest and
undermine the government's authority over the country's 1.3 billion
people.
Ma's concern echoed Premier Wen Jiabao who opened the NPC
session last Friday and vowed to cool off the economy and help
hundreds of millions of farmers who are angry at stagnant living
standards, corruption and a lack of basic services.
(China Daily March 8, 2004)
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